Sensitive documents in the Barry Morphew murder case showed that his wife was finished with their 25-year marriage and very much in love with another man.

Some of Suzanne Morphew’s communication with a high school flame has never been made public. They were revealed in a timeline which was filed March 25, 2022 and unsealed Tuesday evening.

“Nobody loves you…like the way I do. I crave time with you. I crave the feeling I get when we connect. Physically or emotionally. You’re my guy. Always.”

The next night, May 8, 2020, Morphew wrote her secret boyfriend again, this time while she was out to dinner with her husband. “You’re the only real love I’ve known…the only love I want.”

Allowing the romantic communication between Suzanne Morphew, 49, and Jeff Libler, a father of six who lived in Michigan, was intended to convince a jury that the Morphews’ marriage was disintegrating, contrary to what Barry Morphew first told investigators.

Judge Ramsey Lama never got a chance to rule on whether to allow the texts.

The case was dismissed without prejudice by the prosecution for lack of evidence on April 19, 2022, days before jury selection was to begin. Barry Morphew, who was facing first-degree murder charges in the case, was allowed to go free. The term “without prejudice” means that the case can be retried at a later date.

According to her communication with her best friend, Sheila Oliver, Morphew was struggling with her marriage for almost two years. In the motion to introduce the statements, FBI investigator Jonathan Grusing wrote that Suzanne Morphew’s communication showed “the ups and downs that occur from mid-2018 until her death in May of 2020 and explain to the jury how the marriage reached its tipping point by May of 2020,” the document stated.

During their affair, Morphew and Libler communicated on LinkedIn and on WhatsApp, a phone application which allows users to chat over the internet as opposed to standard SMS texting. She never told anyone about the multi-year fling.

Not even investigators knew about the affair until months after Morphew disappeared. They interviewed Libler in November of 2020, but by that time he said he didn’t remember their last conversations and his phone had been destroyed.

In another motion, the defense wanted evidence that Barry Morphew watched  “Forensic Files” and other true crime shows to be scrapped from trial.

Not all of Suzanne Morphew’s heartfelt thoughts revealed in the motion were new. Some of her texts were discussed during the August 2021 evidentiary hearing, but dozens of thoughts she expressed to Oliver, had remained under seal until now.

Some of them had already been ordered to be suppressed by Lama and he may not have ruled to admit them.

On Nov. 27, 2018, in a timeline created by Grusing, Suzanne Morphew wrote that her husband sensed she was gaining strength and was uncomfortable with it. “Just not need his approval all the time is so freeing really I’ve really had to do my own soul searching Many things Ive [sic] done wrong overt [sic] the years and allowed to creep in Breaking the codependency for me is big.”

As the months went by, Grusing documented the 49-year-old mother of two’s growing need to get a divorce. On Aug. 25, 2019, she wrote “I feel no peace when he’s here. I don’t know what to do. I don’t feel safe around him. He’s lost my trust. He will do anything to come out looking good.”

Suzanne Morphew also worried about the couple’s two daughters, one of whom, Macy, still lived at home. “..he pulled girls in and told them everything that day. I lost all respect for him that day. Macy mentioned us separating today or divorcing…She wants us happy. She’s tired of the tention [sic]. He plays the hurt one.”

The document was important to prosecutors because they believed it showed that Suzanne Morphew’s state of mind was in direct opposition to what Barry Morphew told investigators when they first interviewed him the night she was reported missing.

Prosecutors said that Barry Morphew was not truthful about his failing marriage when he was first interviewed by law enforcement. On May 10, 2020, Morphew said that the evening before, the couple had shared a “wonderful” night eating steaks, having sex and going to bed early.

Detectives became suspicious when, contrary to Barry Morphew’s description of a “perfect” evening, a couple of Suzanne Morphew’s texts just two days earlier revealed that their marriage was actually on the rocks.

“It’s been hard dealing with the harsh abrasiveness and having to show respect. He’s also been abusive, emotionally and physically,” she texted her older sister May 8, 2020 describing her husband of 25 years. “There’s so much. Hard to share it all and give you a clear picture.”

Earlier that morning, Morphew wrote a list of grievances she had with Barry Morphew, whom she met and married in their hometown of Alexandria, Indiana.

Her words strengthened the district attorney’s theory, that Barry Morphew killed his wife in a fit of jealousy and insecurity. That theory was revealed at the August 2021 evidentiary hearing.

Chief District Judge Patrick Murphy bound the case over for trial shortly after that, but the prosecution dismissed its own case for lack of evidence on the eve of the trial in April 2022.

In a text interview, Barry Morphew’s attorney, Iris Eytan, said that the judge’s ruling to release case documents came “out of the blue” and that Morphew “does not have the emotional or financial resources to continue this battle against the prosecutors’ misconduct.”  She challenged the release on grounds that Morphew has already suffered for three years and is trying to get his life together.

Last month, Morphew filed a $15 million civil rights lawsuit which states that he was wrongfully arrested, jailed and prosecuted for the alleged murder of his wife, Suzanne, for “a crime he did not commit.”

The Morphew investigation has been fraught with challenges. Murphy recused himself due to a friendship he had with an attorney involved with the case, there was a change of venue from Chaffee County to Fremont County and the most recent district judge, Ramsey Lama, stepped down from the bench soon after.

Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze, who is in charge of the Morphew case, told The Denver Gazette that “the case is ongoing” but legal observers say the longer a case goes, the more others pile up.

“What it sounds like to me is law enforcement needs some help. It looks like we’re having public disclosure and that signals to me maybe law enforcement is looking for help with the public in resolving this case,” said former federal prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis, who acknowledged, “This looks like this is going in the direction of a cold case.”

Dave Lipka, a Colorado Springs criminal defense attorney, said a 3-year-old murder investigation, even one this high-profile, can be a burden on law enforcement.

“In practice when you have a case that’s this old and a motion to dismiss that has been granted you will not have the same amount of resources dedicated to the investigation.”

Suzanne Morphew’s body has never been found. Deputy District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said that prosecutors suspect they know where her body is located, but that “she is in a difficult spot.” Though Eytan did not want the documents released, Hurlbert did not challenge the decision to unseal them.

Lipka was surprised because it’s usually the opposite. “Generally, you want to keep information sealed if you have a true investigation. You don’t want to taint the jury pool by releasing information that may not be admissible at trial,” said Lipka. “It doesn’t make sense to release information that could compromise their own investigation.”

After three years of going unsolved, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation defines a case is “cold.” The Morphew case clanked into its fourth year on May 11, but it is not listed on the Colorado Bureau of Investigation’s cold case list.

Spokesperson Lisa Kohlbrenner explained that “CBI is working with Chaffee County on the narrative as we want to be sure it is appropriate to be shared with the public.”